American Dream Miami developer picks up more land for mega-mall

Developer Triple Five Group just paid $10.8 million for land in northwest Miami-Dade County, where it plans to build the American Dream Miami mega-mall, property records show.

Coral Gables-based Genesis Partner Development Enterprises LLC sold four parcels on Northwest 170th Street and Northwest 97th Avenue, just west of I-75. Gilberto Cerda of Genesis signed the deed transfer of ownership. International Atlantic LLC, an affiliate of Triple Five, also took out $13 million in financing for the properties from Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, also known as CIBC.

The 15-acre site is surrounded by land owned by the Graham Companies, among other developers and investors.

Triple Five plans to build the largest proposed mall and theme park development in North America on roughly 195 acres sandwiched between the Florida Turnpike and I-75. In January, the firm, led by Iranian-Canadian developer Eskandar Ghermezian, secured the first approval from the county commission for a comprehensive master plan amendment for the site. It still needs final approval from the commission.

Triple Five, which developed and owns Mall of America in Minnesota, plans to open the mall all at once in 2022. As proposed, the $3 billion entertainment and retail project would include several amusement parks, 2,000 hotel rooms, a 16-story indoor ski slope, a 20-slide water park, a submarine ride in a man-made salt water lake with an artificial reef, a climate-controlled theme park, a 14-screen 3-D movie theater, a performing arts center and more. It would span roughly 6.2 million square feet.

Graham, which sold the land to Ghermezian, also plans to build a $1.55 billion mixed-use development near American Dream.